Millport delays decision on backhoe

Millport Mayor Icie Wriley

David Miller/Special to The Dispatch

June 11, 2014 10:21:15 AM

MILLPORT, Ala. -- The city's street department will have to wait a bit longer for a new backhoe.

Monday, at Millport's Town Council meeting, council members reviewed a 2005 machine with just 2,000 miles of use. In contrast, the city's current backhoe, currently inoperable, had more than 170,000 miles of use when they bought it, said Councilman Lane Gilliam, who provided pictures and information of the newer option from a private seller.

The board didn't take any action, though other council members inquired about lease and surplus sales options.

"Once we know possible figures, we'll start making decisions," Wriley said. "I have contacted a company and I have some pictures also, just no figures."

Wriley said that, in the meantime, if the streets department needs a backhoe, it will rent one.

Millport Assistant Water Superintendent Kyle Shaw told the Millport Town Council on May 14 "it's only going to get worse before it gets better" after detailing incidents in which the backhoe has locked up while cleaning the city's lagoon and at a resident's home, where employees from the street department were repairing a water line.

Councilman Stanley Allred said a replacement could cost $100,000.

In other news:

■ Mayor Wriley reported a bid for construction work to the city's waste water lagoon should be available at its next scheduled meeting June 23. The town received a $350,000 grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs in November 2013 to improve the sewer system and wastewater treatment plant, which include a system of lagoons that presently must be aerated by hand, via boat.

■ Councilman Tim Fields, who also served as a volunteer firefighter, requested his documents of the city's safety materials, equipment and training be notarized ahead of the Insurance Safety Organization's inspection of the city's fire department and equipment. He said a hard drive crash left the city without information from previous inspections. He said the city could be "dinged", potentially affecting the city's safety rating, currently a 6 on a 10-point scale, for not having official records.

■ Unanimously approved the appointments of Brenda Medley and Gala Rainwater to the Library Board